The Media Review Network (MRN) welcomes one of the most devastating reports on Israeli apartheid emanating from an organ of the United Nations.

Authored by Virginia Tilley and Richard Falk, the damning report was commissioned by the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).

On the basis of universally accepted instruments of international law, the report examines whether Israel has established an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Palestinian people as a whole.

In keeping with the integrity of the authors, the report established that the crime of apartheid has universal jurisdiction and that it (the crime of apartheid) should be considered at the level of the State.

We at MRN are pleased to note that the report relied on the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid for its definition of apartheid.

Given South Africa’s notorious past and that the evil apartheid ideology was specifically associated with it, we at MRN concur with the report that the term “apartheid” is not exclusive to South Africa. It now represents a species of crime against humanity under customary international law.

In addition, according to the Rome Statute, the “crime of apartheid” means inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.

We agree with the consensus that the prohibition of apartheid is universally applicable and was not rendered moot by its collapse in South Africa.

The detailed and comprehensive report by Tilley and Falk concludes that the weight of evidence supports beyond a reasonable doubt the proposition that Israel is guilty of imposing an apartheid regime on the Palestinian people.

We are extremely pleased with the outcome of the report and join the authors in calling on the United Nations, its various agencies and member states to exercise their legal obligations prevent and punish instances of apartheid.

We also call on South Africa to suspend all ties with Israel, for in doing so it will be in compliance with international law to bring apartheid regimes to an end.

We further call on civil society to intensify boycott, sanctions and divestment (BDS) efforts by raising awareness of Israel’s criminal enterprise and mobilising to end it.